Diet + Exercise Trumps Diet Alone: A Review PaperA group of nutritionists at Harvard's School of Public Health decided to review all high quality diet studies since 1966 to see which weight-loss studies work best. All included studies had to be randomized, controlled studies that lasted at least 6 months. Conclusion: "In summary, a combined diet-plus-exercise programme provided greater long-term weight loss than a diet-only programme." They noted, nonetheless, that participants in all trials tended to gain back some weight after their study periods. Source: Obesity Reviews. More

Protein Diets Looking GoodA number of diet studies published in the last week have provided good results for diets with moderate and higher protein contents. These aren't Atkins diets, but attempts to look at healthier protein diets. In one from the University of Illinois, researchers found that a moderate protein, calorie restricted diet worked better than a traditional, high carbohydrate, calorie-restricted diet. The subjects on the moderate protein diet lost more weight in the short and long term (12 months) and had more favorable changes in their cholesterol levels. Source: Journal Of Nutrition. More

Exercise Doesn't Cause Arthritis, Might Prevent ItA new German and U.S. review that looked for a relationship between exercise and osteoarthritis found none, except in elite athletes in sports where they incurred knee injuries. The docs concluded: "In most people vigorous, low-impact exercise is beneficial for both it's physical and mental benefits." The knee is the joint most affected by arthritis, with more than 10 million Americans suffering from knee pain, the most common cause of disability in the country. Source: The Journal Of Anatomy. More

Reduce Diabetes Risk In 7 Minutes A WeekIn the last several years, studies involving High Intensity Training (HIT) have made a number of headlines. Here's a new one. A small group of young men with diabetes risk factors were asked to do just four 30-second stationary bike intervals twice a week. In total, then, they did just 7 to 8 minutes a week of this high intensity exercise. And it appeared to work wonders, giving them a 23-second improvement in glucose clearance in the blood. "This is such a brief amount of exercise you can do it without breaking a sweat," said James Timmons, the head researcher. "You can make just as big as an effect doing this as you can by doing hours and hours of endurance training each week."Source: BioMed Central Endocrine Disorders. More